Whither Israel and its Arab/Palestinian Neighbors?

Enough of the foolishness being written in the media and being spouted from the tongues of politicians, anti-Semites and the uninformed!

”The Palestinian Right of Return Has Long Been a Dead Issue.”

Very simply It ain’t going to happen! This is and has been an irrational demand from Arab and Muslim extremists who a) want to see the end of Israel and b) want to make demands that can guarantee no peace agreement between Israel and those Palestinians who simply want to live in peace and are the real victims and pawns in this charade, and b) want to provide a propaganda issue for anti-Semites, Israel detractors, empty-headed bleeding-heart liberals, and Arab sympathizers.

”A Peace-Partition Based Upon Pre-1967 Borders is a Non-Starter.”

Fagedaboutit! These line were set in 1949 after Israel defeated the Arab armies that had attempted to destroy the newly established Jewish state. Israel gained control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights after again being attacked in 1967. The pre-1967 borders have no meaning, except as an Arab propaganda tool. Any Palestinian state that might come into existence will have its borders established by negotiations between Israel and a peaceful Palestinian entity. The borders agreed upon will not jeopardize Israel’s security and will not force established Israeli towns and cities to be demolished simply in order to make the new Palestinian state Judenfrei.

”Stop Imposing Demands Upon Israel But Not Upon the Arabs and the Palestinians.”

It’s time to stop continuously making demands upon Israel but not upon the Palestinians or the Arab nations surrounding Israel. No more “No new settlements.” No more “Share Jerusalem.” No more “Take back the 1948 Arab refugees.” No more “Return to indefensible borders of 1948.” Instead, let’s have “No Palestinian State that includes the Hamas terrorists.” Let’s have “Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel.” Let’s hear, “Palestinian refugees can only return to Palestinian or Arab controlled areas.” Let’s hear a call to the 22 Arab countries to support and give citizenship to the Palestinians living in refugee camps. Let’s hear a call to all Arab countries to formally recognize the State of Israel and to explicitly state the right of Israel to exist. Let’s hear a demand for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to denounce the terrorist group Hamas. Let’s hear a call for every Arab country and Palestinian sources to stop Islamic Jew-hatred that daily spews from their media, mosques and government policy makers. It’s time to stop placing unrealistic pressures and demands upon Israel while continuing to give little to no weight to the continued incitement, violence, and corruption endemic among the other Middle East players, and that includes the Palestinian Authority.

”Should Israel Negotiate with a Hamas-PA Coalition?”

When you sleep with dogs, you catch fleas. As a president of the United States said after 9/11, “you’re either with us or you’re against us.” If Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) wants to join with the universally designated terrorist organization, Hamas as part of his scheme to form an independent Palestinian nation, he forsakes any claim to legitimacy. Who in their right mind would deal with an organization sworn to destroy you? Any ally of Hamas is an enemy of Israel. Question: If President Obama can tell Israel to return to pre-1967 border as a precondition for negotiations with the Palestinians, why hasn’t he told Mahmoud Abbas and the West Bank Palestinians that if they join with Hamas, they become, by definition, a terrorist organization and relinquish any right to U.S. support, financial, political and otherwise?

”Where is the outrage when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad murders more than a thousand of his countrymen?”

Israel retaliates against Hamas terrorist who launch more than a thousand rockets and mortars against Israeli civilians and the world brands Israel a bunch of terrorists. A biased international inquiry is held and an eventually repudiated Goldstone report is issued that condemns Israel for reacting in self-defense against the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israel declares a legal blockade of the Gaza Strip to prevent the importation of weapons that Hamas can use to attack Israel. Israel then blocks an attempt to run the blockade, resulting in the death of a few of the blockade runners after they attack Israeli military personnel attempting to board the ships of the blockade runners. The world reacts with horror at Israel enforcing a well publicized legal blockade that had been previously declared. There is no condemnation of the blockade runners carrying out an illegal act nor of the individuals on board the vessels that attacked the Israeli military personnel as they attempted to board the ships. Syrian President Assad murders more than a thousand Syrian civilians and there is nothing but silence from the world. Why is world outrage only exhibited when it is against Israel? Why do one set of standards apply to Israel and a different set of standards to every Arab/Muslim despot, tyrant, and terrorist organization?

Only recently, Syria’s brutal regime has twice incited hundreds of people to breach Israel's border. As the New York Times and others have pointed out this was clearly an attempt by Syrian leadership to deflect attention from the repression and murder of their own people. This is nothing but an orchestrated attempt to create an international incident at Israel’s northern border and is nothing more than an act of state-sponsored terrorism. Syria has maintained a state of war with Israel for the past 60 years. It should go without saying that no nation on earth could, or would, permit the deliberate breach of its border by a hostile regime. Israel acted with far more restraint than any nation on earth under the same circumstances which has yet to be acknowledged by the international community or the world media.

Meanwhile, citizens of the Syrian city of Hama are bracing for more assaults by the Syrian military. Hama is the same city that was completely destroyed by the late President Hafez el Assad murdering 10,000 residents in 1982. At that time, the world stayed silent in the face of Syrian brutality. Some 30 years later, Assad’s son, President Bashar al-Assad, is attempting to divert the world’s attention from his repressive acts by fomenting violence at the Israeli border masquerading as a freedom march. Bashar al-Assad is betting that the Western press will focus on the six protesters who were killed crossing a “hot” border rather than spotlight the hundreds who have been exterminated by the Syrian military in the last two months.

David Brooks’ op-ed from the New York Times captures the nature of Assad’s reign.

“All governments do bad things, and Middle East dictatorships do more than most. But the Syrian government is one of the world’s genuinely depraved regimes,” Brooks writes. “Yet for all these years, Israel has been asked to negotiate with this regime, compromise with this regime and trust that this regime will someday occupy the heights over it in peace.”

”Let there be a Clear Message Sent to the So-called Palestinians.”

A clear message must be understood by the “Palestinians” that the longer the Palestinians wait to reach a legitimate peace with Israel, the less they will get. The borders of a Palestinian state will not necessarily be those that were drawn up following the war that resulted from the Arab nations attack on the newly established State of Israel in 1948. The borders will not necessarily reflect the “pre-1967” borders of Israel. The borders will not necessarily be established in a manner that will provide the new “Palestinian” entity with an amount of territory equal to the territory that Israel came into control of following the 1967 war against the Arab countries that attacked it. The borders of a “Palestinian” entity and the amount of territory contained within these borders will be determined through meaningful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians without any coercion from outside sources. The longer the Palestinians wait to enter these negotiations and to conclude a real peace agreement, the greater will be the numbers of Jews in the “Palestinian” areas currently controlled by Israel and the greater will be the number of communities with a Jewish majority in these areas. It is highly unlikely that Israel will return these areas to Palestinian control and their subsequent conversion to “Judenfrei” regions under Arab control! Consequently, the longer it takes to arrive at a real peace, the less the Palestinians will get.

”The Palestinians Need to Understand, that Any Violations of a Future Peace Agreement will Result in the re-imposition of Israeli Control and the Subsequent Loss of Palestinian Territory.”

Arab and Palestinian Agreements with Israel have been Notorious Because of the failure of the Arabs and Palestinians to Live up to These Agreements. Land for Peace? Israel turned over the Gaza Strip to the Arabs and Palestinians living there and, in return, received constant mortar and rocket attacks. A peace agreement with Syria resulted in the constant shelling of Israeli farms in the Golan Heights. A peace agreement with Lebanon resulted in the daily shelling of northern Israel by Hezbollah terrorists and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers manning the Israel-Lebanon border. Future agreements between Israel and the Arabs and Palestinians must spell out the consequences of peace agreement violations. All attacks against Israel must stop. There can be no more incitements in Palestinian media, in Palestinian schools, or by Palestinian government officials against Israel. A clear and unambiguous statement must be made of the recognition of the right of Israel to exist. Support of terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas must cease. Failure to do any of these will constitute a peace treaty violation and penalties will be imposed. One meaningful penalty for peace treaty agreement violations is the annexation of Palestinian territory.

"Can There Ever be Peace with a Regime that Rewards Terrorists for their Crimes?"

A program implemented on May 20, 2011 by the Palestinian Authority (PA) will reward Arab terrorists who are incarcerated in Israeli prisons with cash payments and salaries. A law published in the official Palestinian Authority Registry granted all Palestinians and Israeli Arabs imprisoned in Israel for terror crimes a monthly salary from the PA. Last year alone, the United States provided more than $225 Million in foreign aid to the Palestinian government, which the PA can now use to help pay for terrorism in the Middle East. With the PA and Hamas now kissing and making up, will the rest of the U.S. aid to the Palestinians make its way into the coffers of Islamic terrorists?

"How long will the U.S. and other Nations Continue to Funnel Financial Aid to the Palestinians?"

“Since the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993 and the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994, the U.S. government has committed over $3.5 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians. Since the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004, U.S. assistance to the Palestinians has been averaging about $400 million a year. During the 1990s, U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinians averaged approximately $75 million per year. Despite more robust levels of assistance this decade, Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Hamas’s heightened role in Palestinian politics have made it more difficult to implement effective and lasting aid projects that serve U.S. interests.” (Ref. 1)

After Hamas forcibly took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the United States has dramatically boosted aid levels to the PA and President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to combat Hamas influence there. The United States has appropriated or reprogrammed nearly $2 billion since 2007 in support of the PA, for development, and reform programs, including $650 million for direct budgetary assistance to the PA and nearly $400 million for training, non-lethal equipment, facilities, strategic planning, and administration, and for strengthening and reforming PA security forces and criminal justice systems in the West Bank. The PA has shown its gratitude for this aid by agreeing to join forces with the Hamas terrorists!

“In addition to its bilateral assistance to the Palestinians, the United States is the largest singlestate donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides food, shelter, medical care, and education for many of the original refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and their descendants—now comprising approximately 4.8 million Palestinians in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. Since UNRWA’s inception in 1950, the United States has provided the agency with nearly $4 billion in contributions. U.S. contributions to UNRWA have steadily increased over the past decade, with nearly $228 million thus far for FY2010. Whether UNRWA’s role is beneficial overall, however, is a polarizing question, particularly with respect to UNRWA’s presence in Hamas-controlled Gaza.” (Ref. 1)

One can legitimately ask why is UNRWA supporting the palestinian refugees? Where is the financial help for these refugees from their Muslim brothers in the oil-rich Arab countries of the Middle-East? Why haven’t the Arab countries of the Middle-East taken in these refugees as Israel has done with every Jew that has wanted to immigrate to Israel? We all know the answers – The Arabs and the rest of the Islamic world don’t give a damn about the Palestinian refugees. They only want to keep them in abject poverty and misery so they can blame Israel for their plight and weep with crocodile tears about their “poor Palestinian brethren.” Here again, the Arabs quite simply want to provide am ongoing propaganda issue for anti-Semites, Israel detractors, empty-headed bleeding-heart liberals, and Arab sympathizers.

"What can the United Nations Contribute to the Establishment of peace Between the Arabs and the Jews?"

Time and time again the United Nations has proved to be totally unable to act without bias or to perform any meaningful acts that might lead to a peaceful resolution of nearly all of the conflicts which it has been tasked to police or to resolve.
Anti-Israel resolutions have a virtual automatic majority in the U.N. General Assembly. As Israel’s Prime Minister said, “It would be possible to get a resolution that world is flat” in the U.N. General Assembly. The Palestinians rely on the bloc of Arab and Muslim countries and their third-world allies to routinely pass anti-Israel resolutions. Every year, the General Assembly passes at least 20 anti-Israel resolutions.

Let’s remember, the U.N. was supposed to maintain peace between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai. The first United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was established by United Nations General Assembly to secure an end to the 1956 Suez Crisis. Its mission was to maintain quiet during and after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Sinai. On May 16, 1967, the Egyptian government ordered all United Nations forces out of Sinai. The U.N. complied, leaving Israel vulnerable to attack by Egypt that precipitated the 1967 War.

The U.N. deployed a peace-keeping force to Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The ineffectiveness of UNIFIL is demonstrated by the ability of the terrorist organization Hezbollah to import and deploy arms, to attack northern Israel with rockets, and to kidnap Israeli soldiers manning the Israel-Lebanon border. UNIFIL was even accused of complicity in the fatal abduction of IDF soldiers in October 2000. Prior to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Israel had been unsuccessfully pushing for UNIFIL to either take a more active role with respect to Hezbollah or to step out of the region, thereby voiding the Lebanese government’s excuse for not deploying Lebanese Armed Forces along itse border with Israel. UNIFIL also came under criticism during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict for broadcasting detailed reports of Israeli troop movements, numbers, and positions on their website while making no such reports about Hezbollah.

In recent years, the U.N. has proven itself to be biased, ineffective and irrelevant in terms of meaningfully contributing to, establishing and/or maintaining peace agreements just about anywhere in the world, and especially so in the Mid-East. There is absolutely no reason to believe that they, like the proverbially leopard can change its spots.

"Will the Establishment of a Palestinian State Finally Bring Peace to the Region?"

A Palestinian State is very unlikely to bring peace to the region for two simple reasons: 1) a critical mass of Arabs does not want Israel to exist, and 2) there is significant doubt about the ability of the two separated areas that would comprise the Palestinian State to be economically viable.